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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23412850">Memento Mori</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hysteriacore/pseuds/Hysteriacore'>Hysteriacore</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Hunter X Hunter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Adult Gon, Familial (?) relationships, Gen, Gon has restored his nen, The plague, implied future death, non consensual disease transmission, that’s right, the og</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 08:27:31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,436</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23412850</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hysteriacore/pseuds/Hysteriacore</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A plague has ravaged a small historic town. Hisoka seeks the good death despite that.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Gon Freecs/Hisoka</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>32</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Memento Mori</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I would very much like to include more details about what the rest of the gang (particularly Leorio) are up to while this is going on. I have tentative plans to add more chapters. Also, if you are an epidemiologist, I apologize for the hodgepodge illness I’ve created. I ended up with a combination of bubonic and septicemic plague.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>So many buildings had been set on fire that the town of New Luca was now under a constant cloud of smoke. Hisoka covered his mouth with his cloak, the cheap wool scratching against his lips. He could smell urine that clung to the cloth from the dying process and he smiled. It seemed absurd to bother buy something new, after everything. 

   He had stripped it of course, from its owner as she lay in a heap bodies outside the city walls. He had no fear of the body or of the dazed people cast into the streets, already dead. He tightened the cloak again for warmth, careful not to press on the painful swelling in his neck. He didn’t care which door he picked particularly, choosing every third door. He was getting less and less lucky as he got closer to the center of town.  </p><p>   The occupants of the little tavern didn’t look up when he entered. A middle-aged woman lay on the table with her legs spread, looking around at the gathered men with glassy eyes. The men were all sweating profusely despite the cold, their hips moving mechanically. Not one of them was worth his attention. Even if they survived this, they always would be nothing, always had been nothing. He considered killing them anyway, but he knew that he would never forgive himself if he wasted what energy he had left on trash.  </p><p>    Hisoka turned and left the tavern and leaned his head back on the stone wall outside. He shifted on his feet and felt a shock of what could only be described as freakish pain shoot up his leg. He clenched his teeth against it and to his horror, felt tears stream down his cheeks. A giggle rose in his throat; this is the first time he’s ever shied away from pain. Pain taught him things, pain was a trophy, pain was only thing that love leaves behind but now? Now he was impotent.  </p><p>    “Sir?” asked a clear voice from his left.  </p><p>    He turned to look at them and found a stout girl of about twelve. Her cheeks were full and healthy still and he could see the musculature in her forearms. Her black hair still looked clean.  </p><p>    “You should get yourself out of here if you can, sir,” she said, her eyebrows furrowing gravely. Hisoka took note of the ruddiness of her skin, the mud on her dress. No merchant’s daughter would be caught dead in it.<br/>
“You’re quite far from home, aren’t you?” Hisoka asked. The girl seemed taken aback for a moment before she shrugged. He slowly moved to close the distance between them.  </p><p>    “There’s no home to go back to now,” she said, her lips thin with grief. Hisoka watched her for any sign that she needed comfort. He found only two golden flames, consuming their surroundings like she owned everything her gazed touched. She smirked and lifted her cloak a little out of the way. The girl’s chest was bright red and streaked with scabs that had nothing to do with sickness and around her neck was black bruise. Hisoka’s hand trembled as he held back from reaching for her just yet. </p><p>    “I was the only one in my house left alive,” she began, her eyes glittering with excitement.  </p><p>     “My neighbors wouldn’t even look at me when they tied me to the support beams and lit the fire. They didn’t know I still had this.” She took a mean little paring knife out of her sleeve.  </p><p>    “They found out later,” she said, laugh coming out of her against her will. </p><p>    Hisoka sighed with pleasure. The girl met his eye and even though she smiled it looked to him like she was blushing. She need not have been so bashful in front of him, but he decided the contrast was charming. He beamed at her, catching her face in his hands finally before pulling her in for a kiss.  </p><p>    She struggled fruitlessly against his chest, scratching at the dead flesh that he could no longer feel, she bit him nearly through his lip. He felt her move for the knife more than he saw it. Pain burst through his groin as the blade penetrated him, but she had just missed the artery in her panic. He moaned softly as he pulled away, one hand firmly sinking into her hair. He pressed their foreheads together while they both caught their breaths. She gasped, her eyes widening in shock upon seeing the buboes on his throat for the first time. He gently wrapped his hand around her neck giving it an affectionate squeeze before taking hold of her face again. Before she could break away from him, he forced open her jaw.  </p><p>    “Thank you,” he whispered before spiting blood-tinged mucus into her mouth. Her gaze flickered for a second or two before she sank to the ground, already one of the walking dead.<br/>
....................</p><p>     Gon adjusted his pack, checking to make sure that he hadn’t dropped any of the water and soil samples that Leorio had tasked him to collect. He smelled the girl before he saw her. The scent of death had been oppressive at the edge of New Luca, smothering anything else. But this area of town looked nearly abandoned. She had crawled to a dry fountain before she died, much like some animals hide so that may die in private. He examined her for a little longer than he otherwise would have because she resembled him so closely that he wondered absurdly, if his father had other children around.  </p><p>    He couldn’t place the emotion he was feeling but it was something like fascination. He had been content to coast on it, unexamined, if he could do something useful. The sight of the body sent a thrill through him the way that the covered mass graves had not. It was like meeting an enemy face to face for the first time.  </p><p>     Gon shook himself from his reverie, turning back to the most efficient route across the town. He was five or six blocks away from the city center, approaching a small square when he felt the presence of another nen user. The person was doing absolutely nothing to conceal their aura. They were howling into the street, daring, begging anyone to come closer. Gon was drawn to it, turning down the street against his will. </p><p>    At the end of the alleyway, sitting against the wall was a tramp. The man seemed to become back to himself as Gon approached. His aura closed in around the two of them, and Gon found the atmosphere too intimate for his liking.  </p><p>     “Gon,” the tramp said softly. He smiled; his teeth stained with rotting blood. He reached out to him and Gon could see the tell-tale blackening of his fingertips. Gon could feel a tendril of nen touch the edge of his own, like a dog nosing his master for a pet.  </p><p>   “Hisoka?” Gon whispered, tears welling in his eyes. It had to have been five, six years since he last seen him. He was the same size he had always been. The disease of course ravaged the body too quickly to take its victims apart in pieces. He resisted the urge to come closer to him, though he couldn’t decide if the choice was out of concern for infection or whatever power Hisoka still possessed. Hioska gave him a gentle look before nodding, his nen fading almost instantly. Gon could see his body crumble with exhaustion.  </p><p>    “I don’t think that I’m going to let you pass my boy,” Hisoka said, his smile still familiar. Gon was shocked at how normal he sounded despite his condition. Without thinking Gon’s nen flared in alarm, suddenly facing this man in heaven’s arena again.  </p><p>  “There you are,” Hisoka sighed.<br/>
“I do love that look on you.” Hisoka paused for a moment, thinking.  </p><p>    “I won’t fight you until you’re ready,” he said, as he had many times before. It occurred to Gon that Hisoka had gone mad. He slowly moved forward, considering the fastest way to put his old friend (Was that right? Perhaps it was.) out of his misery before Hisoka continued.  </p><p>   “You still have a long life ahead of you before that.” Hisoka gave Gon a wink. Gon blanched and searched for anything to say. Hisoka’s face went white as his body was racked with pain.  </p><p>    “Promise me. Promise to find me when you’re ready.” Hisoka begged before he began to cough.  </p><p>   “I promise,” Gon said, finally. He kept eye contact for as long as he could stand it before respectfully bowing out.</p>
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